Synchronization signal transmitting device, method thereof and power electronic apparatus having the device

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a synchronization signal transmitting device, method thereof and a power electronic apparatus with the device. The synchronization signal transmitting device comprises at least one serial differential signal transmitter for receiving an identical-period pulse signal and outputting a differential signal pair, at least one serial differential signal receiver for receiving the differential signal pair and outputting a single-ended signal, and at least one controller for receiving the single-ended signal. Moreover, the controller is configured for conducting a signal filtering process and/or a signal reconstruction process to the single-ended signal, so as to obtain a synchronization signal. Thus, the present invention shows the advantages of transmission and process purely by hardware without participation of software, without occupation to calculating ability of processors, high time accuracy, and low time delay. The method and device can not only transmitting the identical synchronous clock signal with power frequency, but also the PWM carrier synchronous clock signal with high frequency ranged from several kHz to hundreds kHz.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the technology field of powerelectronic apparatuses, and more particularly to a synchronizationsignal transmitting device, a synchronization signal transmitting methodand a power electronic apparatuses having the device.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In controlling a power electronic system, an identical synchronizationclock signal with power frequency (called “power-frequency clockinformation” hereinafter) and/or a PWM carrier synchronization clockinformation (called “PWM carrier clock information” hereinafter) areprovided to multi paralleled power electronic apparatuses so as tocoordinate these apparatuses and enhance the electric power qualityoutputted by these apparatuses. Moreover, in the conventional powerelectronic system, an active detection method is commonly used forislanding detection in each of the power electronic apparatuses. Toensure the disturbance is added into each of the power electronicapparatuses coordinately, the disturbance information must be providedto each of them synchronously.

However, for a broad range-distributed power system, there are oftenlong-distance (several hundred meters far at most) and strongelectro-magnetic interference (EMI) among each other of different powerelectronic apparatuses, which lead to difficulty in reliablytransmitting synchronization signal among multiple power electronicapparatuses. Accordingly, how to effectively transmit thesynchronization signal under a harsh electromagnetic environment in along-distance becomes an urgent issue to be resolved.

According to a conventional synchronization signal transmitting methodfor high power electronic apparatuses, a data frame from the informationtransmitter is transmitted to multiple paralleled processors at thereceiver through CAN (Controller Area Network) buses or RS-485 buses.The data frame is a protocol data unit (PDU) of a data link layer (DLL)comprising frame header, data portion and frame end, wherein the frameheader and the frame end includes essential control information, such asframe start information, addressing information and error controlinformation, and the data portion includes the data to be transmittedsuch as synchronization information data.

After receiving the data frame, the processor at the receiver decodes,checks the data frame and makes time delay compensation to it, andthereby extract the synchronization signal from the data frame. If adata transmission error occurs due to EMI on CAN bus or on RS-485 bus,the processor can figure out the erroneous code by software verificationand correct its effect on the synchronization signal. A reliablesynchronization signal transmission is realized in this way.

However, the aforesaid method has the following shortcomings in spite ofits enabling reliable synchronization signal transmitting bytransmitting data frame on CAN bus or RS-485 bus:

(1) The aforesaid method may be used for transmitting the low frequencyclock information such as power frequency of 50 Hz or 60 Hz, but cannotbe used for transmitting high frequency PWM carrier clock information.The reason is that the Baud Rate used in the aforesaid method must bedozens times as high as the frequency of the transmitted synchronizationclock information. Therefore, the necessary Baud Rate would be extremelyhigh if the aforesaid method is used for transmitting the PWM carrierclock information (from several kHz to hundreds of kHz). For instance,when the PWM carrier has a frequency of 100 kHz, the necessary Baud Rateto transmit the data frame must be at least 5 Mbps. However, the CAN busand/or the RS-485 bus are unable to accomplish such informationtransmission especially under a harsh electromagnetic environment in along distance.

(2) The information transmission has very low time accuracy in theaforesaid method. In addition to receiving the synchronous clock signal,the processor at the receiver has many other programs to execute, forexample, the high-priority interrupt program, the execution of which mayaffect the operation time of decoding and checking of the data frame.This would reduce the time accuracy of the transmitted synchronizationclock information.

(3) The aforesaid method has a complicated adjustment of time delaycompensation. From the aforesaid point (2), it may be known that a timedelay of several milliseconds to hundreds of milliseconds may be causeddue to execution of other programs. For this reason, the processor mustmake time delay compensation to the synchronization information.However, the execution time of software varies with the change ofprogram code, which is not a constant, and this increases the difficultyand complicity in making time delay compensation to the synchronizationsignal.

(4) The aforesaid method has a high occupation to operating ability ofthe processors. From aforesaid points (2) and (3), in the aforesaidmethod the decoding, checking and time delay compensation of the dataframe is mainly done by software, and thereby extracting thesynchronization signal. However, with the frequency of thesynchronization clock information increasing, the execution time of theused software become more inconstant, and hence a processor with higheroperating ability is required, which leads to increased cost inprocessors.

Accordingly, in view of these shortcomings in conventional powerelectronic devices and method thereof, the inventor of the presentapplication has made great efforts to make inventive research thereonand eventually provided a synchronization signal transmitting device, asynchronization signal transmitting method and a power electronicapparatus having the device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide asynchronization signal transmitting device and a method thereof, whereinthe synchronization signal transmitting device and the method reveal theimportant technology features of simplicity in architecture andadjustment of time delay compensation. Moreover, the device and methodalso show the following advantages: transmission and process purely byhardware without participation of software, without occupation tocalculating ability of processors, high time accuracy, and low timedelay. The proposed synchronization signal transmitting device is ableto assure the reliability of synchronization signal transmission in along distance in a power electronic system under a harsh electromagneticenvironment.

Accordingly, to achieve the primary objective of the present invention,the present invention provides a synchronization signal transmittingdevice, comprising:

at least one serial differential signal transmitter, used for receivingan identical-period pulse signal, and outputting the identical-periodpulse signal by the form of a differential signal pair;

at least one serial differential signal receiver, coupled to the serialdifferential signal transmitter for receiving the differential signalpair, so as to transform the differential signal pair to a single-endedsignal; and

at least one controller, coupled to the at least one serial differentialsignal receiver for receiving the single-ended signal, wherein thecontroller conducts a signal filtering process and/or a signalreconstruction process to the single-ended signal to extractsynchronization signal, and output a control signal for controlling thepower output of a next-stage power converter according to the extractedsynchronization signal.

Moreover, in order to achieve the primary objective of the presentinvention, the present invention further provides a synchronizationsignal transmitting method, comprising the steps of:

at least one serial differential signal transmitter receiving anidentical-period pulse signal, and outputting the identical-period pulsesignal by the form of a differential signal pair;

at least one serial differential signal receiver receiving thedifferential signal pair, so as to transform the differential signalpair to a single-ended signal; and

at least one controller receiving the single-ended signal, wherein thecontroller conducts a signal filtering process and/or a signalreconstruction process to the single-ended signal to extractsynchronization signal, and outputs a control signal for controlling thepower output of a next-stage power converter according to the extractedsynchronization signal.

Furthermore, the present invention also provides a power electronicapparatus having the aforesaid synchronization signal transmittingdevice, comprising:

a signal transceiver unit, used for outputting an identical-period pulsesignal;

at least one serial differential signal transmitter, coupled to thesignal transceiver unit for receiving the identical-period pulse signal,and outputting the identical-period pulse signal by the form of adifferential signal pair;

at least one serial differential signal receiver, coupled to the serialdifferential signal transmitter for receiving the differential signalpair, so as to transform the differential signal pair to a single-endedsignal; and

at least one converter module, coupled to the at least one serialdifferential signal receiver, and comprising: a controller, coupled tothe serial differential signal receiver for receiving the single-endedsignal; and a power converter, coupled to the controller; wherein thecontroller conducts a signal filtering process and/or a signalreconstruction process to the received single-ended signal to extractsynchronization signal, and outputs a control signal for controlling thepower output of a next-stage power converter according to the extractedsynchronization signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention as well as a preferred mode of use and advantages thereofwill be best understood by referring to the following detaileddescription of an illustrative embodiment in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an architecture diagram of a synchronization signaltransmitting device according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows oscillograms of a synchronization signal transmitted by thesynchronization signal transmitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a second architecture of thesynchronization signal transmitting device according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 4 shows oscillograms of the synchronization signal having adisturbance signal transmitted by the synchronization signaltransmitting device of the present invention;

FIG. 5 shows a flow chart of a synchronization signal transmittingmethod according to the present invention; and

FIG. 6 shows an architecture diagram of a power electronic apparatusaccording to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

To more clearly describe a synchronization signal transmitting device, asynchronization signal transmitting method and a power electronicapparatus having the synchronization signal transmitting deviceaccording to the present invention, embodiments of the present inventionwill be described in detail with reference to the attached drawingshereinafter.

With reference to FIG. 1, which illustrate an architecture diagram of asynchronization signal transmitting device according to the presentinvention. As shown in FIG. 1, the synchronization signal transmittingdevice of the present invention consists of: at least one serialdifferential signal transmitter 11, at least one serial differentialsignal receiver 12 and at least one controller 13 (FIG. 1 shows N serialdifferential signal receivers 12 and N controllers 13). In the presentinvention, the serial differential signal transmitter 11 is coupled to asynchronization signal transmitting unit 10 for receiving anidentical-period pulse signal 101, so as to output the identical-periodpulse signal 101 by the form of a differential signal pair 111. As shownby FIG. 1, the synchronization signal transmitting unit 10 can be aprocessor, a programmable logic device (PLD), or a combination of theprocessor and the programmable logic device. Moreover, although FIG. 1shows that the identical-period pulse signal 101 is directly transmittedto the serial differential signal transmitter 11 by the synchronizationsignal transmitting unit 10, that does not use for limiting thetransmission way of the identical-period pulse signal 101. In otherapplications, the synchronization signal transmitting unit 10 can alsotransmit the identical-period pulse signal 101 to the serialdifferential signal transmitter 11 through an optical coupler or a levelconverting circuit.

The identical-period pulse signal 101 means a voltage pulse signal suchas a synchronous clock signal with power frequency and a PWM carriersynchronous clock signal, which are all capable of being measured by anoscilloscope. The synchronous clock signal with power frequency and thePWM carrier synchronous clock signal are transmitted by two differentserial differential signal transmitters 11, respectively. Herein, itneeds to further explain that, the “signal period” of theidentical-period pulse signal means the time interval between the risingedges of two adjacent pulse or the falling edges of two adjacent pulses.In the description of the present invention hereafter, the “period” isdefined to the time interval between the rising edges of two adjacentpulses. Moreover, the “identical period” means that any adjacent signalperiods are equal (or almost the same to) on the time axis. Furthermore,the “almost the same” means the absolute value of the difference betweenany adjacent signal periods is smaller than 5% of the previous signalperiod thereof.

Continuously referring to FIG. 1, and please simultaneously refer toFIG. 2, which illustrate oscillograms during a synchronization signaltransmitted by the synchronization signal transmitting device. As shownin FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the serial differential signal receiver 12 iscoupled to the serial differential signal transmitter 11 via adifferential serial bus for receiving the differential signal pair 111and transforming the differential signal pair 111 to a single-endedsignal 121. The differential serial bus has a ground wire and a pair ofdifferential signal wires. In this way, in one period, the differentialserial bus just transmit one high level signal and one low level signal,while the conventional method needs to transmit a complete data framegenerally including dozens of high level signal and low level signal.Therefore, it can obviously lower the requirement on Baud Rate andtransmit the PWM carrier synchronous clock signal with high frequency bythe differential serial bus.

In the present invention, both the serial differential signaltransmitter 11 and the serial differential signal receiver 12 in FIG. 1can be the CAN (Controller Area Network) transceiver, the RS-485transceiver, the RS-422 transceiver, the MIL-STD-1553 (MilitaryStandard) transceiver, the LVDS (Low-Voltage Differential Signaling)transceiver, the BLVDS (Bus Low-Voltage Differential Signaling)transceiver, or the MLVDS (Multipoint Low-Voltage DifferentialSignaling) transceiver.

Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the controllers 13 of thesynchronization signal transmitting device is coupled to the serialdifferential signal receiver 12 for receiving the single-ended signal121. In other applications, the serial differential signal receiver 12can also transmit the single-ended signal 121 to the controller 13through an optical coupler or a level converting circuit. In thesynchronization signal transmitting device of the present invention, thecontroller 13 consists of a programmable logic device 131 and aprocessor 132, wherein the programmable logic device 131 is used forreceiving the single-ended signal 121. It is well known that, duringsignal transmission, the waveform distortion, glitch signal, and pulsemissing would unavoidably occur in the differential signal pair 111 dueto the interference of EMI. Although the single-ended signal 121 wouldbe treated with level changing process and pulse shaping process, thesingle-ended signal 121 outputted by the serial differential signalreceiver 12 still includes the glitch signal and pulse missing, forexample glitch signal 1211 and pulse missing 1212 as shown in FIG. 2.The “glitch signal” means the additional pulse signal which should notoccur in the time interval of the signal period of a transmitted pulsesignal on the time axis. Generally, the time width of the glitch signalmay smaller than the pulse width of the normal pulse signal, and maygreater than or equal to the pulse width of the normal pulse signal. Theprogrammable logic device 131 receives the single-ended signal as wellas conducts a signal filtering process and/or a signal reconstructionprocess to the single-ended signal 121, so as to restore a normalidentical-period pulse signal.

In the present invention, an arrival time interval of next pulse of thesingle-ended signal 121 can be calculated by the programmable logicdevice 131 according to an arrival time of the pulse front edge ofcurrent pulse of the single-ended signal 121 as well as a specificperiod of the single-ended signal 121. The aforesaid specific period isa measured value of the previous period of the single-ended signal 121,or a weighted average of the previous several periods of thesingle-ended signal 121. The arrival time interval of the next pulseaccords with the following mathematical relationship:t_(k+1)ε(t_(k)+0.95T, t_(k)+1.05T). In the mathematical relationship, Tmeans the specific period, t_(k+1) means the arrival time of the nextpulse, and t_(k) means the arrival time of the pulse front edge of thecurrent pulse.

FIG. 2 shows the waveforms of the signal-ended signal 121. whenexecuting the filtering process, the programmable logic devices 131determine whether the next pulse of the single-ended signal 121 isreceived before the arrival time interval of the next pulse; if yes, theprogrammable logic devices 131 determines that the received pulse signalis an interference signal 1211 and filter it out. Moreover, whenexecuting the signal reconstruction process, the programmable logicdevices 131 would determine whether the next pulse of the single-endedsignal 121 is received during the arrival time interval of the nextpulse; if no, the programmable logic devices 131 determines that onepulse of the single-ended signal 121 has been lost and reconstruct apulse of the single-ended signal 121. After the signal filtering processand/or the signal reconstruction process, a restored identical-periodpulse signal 133 is obtained, which contains synchronization signal. Asshown in FIG. 2, the restored identical-period pulse signal 133 includesa synchronous clock signal.

The processor 132 is coupled to the programmable logic device 131 forreceiving the restored identical-period pulse signal 133. And accordingto the restored identical-period pulse signal 133, the processor 132further outputs a control signal to synchronously control the poweroutput of the next-stage power converter (FIG. 1 does not show the powerconverter). The identical-period pulse signal 133 outputted by theprogrammable logic devices 131 contains synchronization signal, the dutycycle of which is adjustable. For instance, as shown in FIG. 2, a clocksignal 100 is outputted after the processors according to the specificperiod, which is synchronous with the restored identical-period pulsesignal 133 and has a duty cycle approaching to 50% by fixing the risingedge and shifting the falling edge. Of course, duty cycle of the clocksignal is not limit to 50%. The clock signal 100 can be synchronizationsignal with any necessary duty cycle according to the requirement ofcontrol. From FIG. 2, it can find that the restored identical-periodpulse signal 133 and the clock signal 100 with a approximate 50% dutycycle show certain time delay compared to the identical-period pulsesignal 101 at the transmitter. The time delay may be ranged from severalnanoseconds to dozens of nanoseconds, depending on the hardware on theentire synchronization signal transmitting path. Obviously, whencompared to the period (dozens of microseconds˜dozens of milliseconds)of the identical-period pulse signal 101, the time delay occurring inthe restored identical-period pulse signal 133 and/or the clock signal100 is short enough to be ignored. For this reason, the controllers 13don't need to execute the time delay compensation during the signaltransmission.

In the present invention, the programmable logic device 131 can be theFPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), the CPLD (Complex ProgrammableLogic Device), or the EPLD (Erasable Programmable Logic Device, EPLD).The processor can be the microcontroller, the digital signal processor,the central processor, the microprocessor, or the network processor.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the second embodiment of thesynchronization signal transmitting device according to the presentinvention. The synchronization signal transmitting device has two serialdifferential signal transmitters 11. The two serial differential signaltransmitters respectively receive the identical-period pulse signal 101outputted by the synchronization signal transmitting unit 10 and outputthe identical-period pulse signal 101 by the form of the differentialsignal pair 111. The identical-period pulse signal 101 can be asynchronous clock signal with power frequency or a PWM carriersynchronous clock signal, but not limited to this. In the secondembodiment, the identical-period pulse signals 101 received by the twoserial differential signal transmitters 11 can be both the synchronousclock signal with power frequency or both the PWM carrier synchronousclock signal. Besides, in other possible applications, the two serialdifferential signal transmitters 11 are able to respectively receive thesynchronous clock signal with power frequency and the PWM carriersynchronous clock signal.

In spite of all periods of the identical-period pulse signal 101 shownin FIG. 4 are almost the same, duty cycles of each period of theidentical-period pulse signal 101 are not constant. The anothertechnology feature of the present invention is that the identical-periodpulse signal 101 can transmit a disturbance signal by the duty cyclevariations of each period of the identical-period pulse signal 101. FIG.4 is a diagram showing waveforms of the synchronization signal with adisturbance signal transmitting. The duty cycles of each period of theidentical-period pulse signal 101 are not constant and theidentical-period pulse signal 101 simultaneously contains a synchronousclock signal and a disturbance signal by varying duty cycle.

As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the identical-period pulse signal 101with varying duty cycles is outputted by the form of a differentialsignal pair 111. And the differential signal pair 111 is furthertransformed to the signal-ended signal 121 by the serial differentialsignal receiver 12 coupled to the controller 13. The controller includesa programmable logic device 131 and a processor 132. The programmablelogic device 131 receives the single-ended signal 121 and conducts thefiltering process and/or the signal reconstruction process to thesingle-ended signal 121 to obtain a restored identical-period pulsesignal 133. The restored identical-period pulse signal 133 includes thesynchronization signal. The programmable logic device 131 furtherextracts the disturbance signal 120 by measuring the duty cycles of eachperiod of the identical-period pulse signal 133. As shown in FIG. 4, thedisturbance signal 120 consists of a disturbing direction signal 1201and a disturbance-determining signal 1202, wherein thedisturbance-determining signal 1202 is used for determining whether thedisturbance signal is included in the identical-period pulse signal 133.Taking for example the restored identical-period pulse signal 133 shownin FIG. 4, if duty cycle of the pulse signal is ranged between 40% and60%, there is no disturbance signal 120 being included in the restoredidentical-period pulse signal 133. In addition, if duty cycle of thepulse signal is smaller than 40%, it is determined that the restoredidentical-period pulse signal 133 carries a disturbance signal 120 andthe disturbing direction signal 1201 of the disturbance signal 120 is ahigh-level signal, which means the disturbance signal 120 is positivedisturbance signal. On the contrary, if duty cycle of the pulse signalis greater than 60%, it means that the identical-period pulse signal 133also carries a disturbance signal 120, and, the carried disturbancesignal 120 is negative disturbance signal and the disturbing directionsignal 1201 of the disturbance signal 120 is a low-level signal. Herein,it needs to further explain that, although the duty cycle range (<40%or >60%) of the carried disturbance signal 120 has been introduced inaforesaid description, we can define a suitable duty cycle range of thedisturbance signal 120, not limited to the range (<40% or >60%).Therefore, by controlling the duty cycle variation of theidentical-period pulse signal 101, the synchronization signaltransmitting device can not only transmit the disturbance signal butalso other synchronization signals, such as an operation mode switchingsignal.

The restored identical-period pulse signal 133 containing thesynchronization signal is outputted to the processor 132 by theprogrammable logic devices 131. The processor 132 outputs controlsignals to the next-stage power converter (FIG. 3 does not show thepower converter) according to the synchronization signal, such as theclock signal 100 with the duty cycle approaching to 50% in FIG. 4.Similarly, in FIG. 4, it can find that the restored identical-periodpulse signal 133 and the clock signal 100 show certain time delaycompared to the identical-period pulse signal 101 at the transmitter.Obviously, when compared to the time interval of the period of theidentical-period pulse signal 101, the time delay occurring in therestored identical-period pulse signal 133 and/or the clock signal 100is short enough to be ignored. For this reason, the controller 13 doesnot need to execute the time delay compensation during the signaltransmission.

After aforesaid descriptions, the topology of the synchronization signaltransmitting device and the technology of signal transmission thereofhave been introduced completely and clearly. A synchronization signaltransmitting method will be introduced in following paragraphs. FIG. 5shows a flow chart of the synchronization signal transmitting methodaccording to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, thesynchronization signal transmitting method mainly comprises 3 steps.

Before proceeding to step (S01), a synchronization signal transmittingunit 10 outputs an identical-period pulse signal 101 to the serialdifferential signal transmitter 11. The identical-period pulse signal101 can be transmitted to the serial differential signal transmitter 11directly by the synchronization signal transmitting unit 10, or throughan optical coupler or a level converting circuit. Subsequently, executethe step (S01): the serial differential signal transmitter 11 receivesthe identical-period pulse signal 101 and outputs the identical-periodpulse signal 101 by the form of a differential signal pair 111.Continuously, execute step (S02): the serial differential signalreceiver 12 receives the differential signal pair 111 and transforms thedifferential signal pair 111 to a single-ended signal 121. Eventually,execute step (S03): the controller 13 receives the single-ended signal121, conducts the signal filtering process and/or the signalreconstruction process to the single-ended signal 121 for obtaining asynchronization signal and outputs a control signal to control the poweroutput of the next-stage power converter according to thesynchronization signal.

As explained previously, the signal-filtering process mainly includestwo steps. The first step is that the programmable logic device 131calculates an arrival time interval of the next pulse of thesingle-ended signal 121 according to an arrival time of the pulse frontedge of the current pulse as well as the period of the single-endedsignal 121. The second step is that the programmable logic device 131determines whether the next pulse of the single-ended signal 121 isreceived before the arrival time interval of the next pulse; if yes, theprogrammable logic device 131 determines that the received pulse of thesingle-ended signal 121 is an interference signal and filters it out.Moreover, the signal reconstruction process also mainly contains twosteps. The first step is that the programmable logic device 131calculates the arrival time interval of the next pulse of thesingle-ended signal 121 according to an arrival time of the pulse frontedge of the current pulse as well as the period of the single-endedsignal 121. The second step is that the programmable logic device 131determines whether the next pulse of the single-ended signal 121 isreceived during the arrival time interval of the next pulse; if no, theprogrammable logic device 131 determines that one pulse of thesingle-ended signal 121 has been lost and reconstructs a pulse of thesingle-ended signal 121.

The above introduced synchronization signal transmitting device and themethod thereof can be widely applied in a power electronic apparatusconnected to an electric grid or a micro electric grid, and the saidpower electronic apparatus can be widely applied, such as the AVC(active voltage convertor), the SFC (shore frequency convertor), the UPS(uninterruptible power system), the SVG (static var generator), and theESS (energy storage system). Please refer to FIG. 6, which illustrates adiagram of a power electronic apparatus according to the presentinvention. As shown in FIG. 6, the power electronic apparatus consistsof: a signal transceiver unit 10 a, at least one serial differentialsignal transmitter 11, at least one serial differential signal receiver12, and at least one converter module 14. The signal transceiver unit 10a can be a processor, a programmable logic device (PLD), or thecombination of the processor and the programmable logic device.

FIG. 6 shows two serial differential signal transmitters 11 forreceiving identical-period pulse signals 101, respectively. In the powerelectronic apparatus, the identical-period pulse signals 101 received bythe two serial differential signal transmitters 11 can both be thesynchronous clock signal with power frequency or the PWM carriersynchronous clock signal. Besides, in other possible applications, thetwo serial differential signal transmitters 11 are able to respectivelyreceive the synchronous clock signal with power frequency and the PWMcarrier synchronous clock signal. Moreover, each the serial differentialsignal transmitter 11 is coupled to several serial differential signalreceivers 12 via the differential serial bus, and transmits theidentical-period pulse signal 101 to the serial differential signalreceivers 12 by the form of the differential signal pair 111. The serialdifferential signal receiver 12 transforms the differential signal pair111 to a single-ended signal 121 after receiving the differential signalpair 111. The serial differential signal receiver 12 is connected to thecorresponding power converter module 14 and transmits the single-endedsignal 121 to the corresponding power converter module 14. In otherpossible applications, the serial differential signal receiver 12 canalso transmit the single-ended signal 121 to the power converter module14 through an optical coupler or a level converting circuit. As shown inFIG. 6, the converter module 14 consists of a controller 13 and a powerconverter 134. The controller 13 includes a programmable logic device131 and a processor 132. The programmable logic device 131 is used toreceive the single-ended signal 121, and conducts the signal filteringprocess and/or the signal reconstruction process to the single-endedsignal 121 to obtain a restored identical-period pulse signal 133including synchronization signal (as shown in FIG. 4). The programmablelogic device 131 calculates an arrival time interval of the next pulseof the single-ended signal 121 according to an arrival time of the pulsefront edge of the current pulse as well as the period of thesingle-ended signal 121 for conducting the signal filtering processand/or the signal reconstruction process to restore the identical-periodpulse signal 133 which comprises the synchronization signal (as shown inFIG. 4). Therefore, the processor 132 coupled to the programmable logicdevice 131 outputs control signals according to the restoredsynchronization signal to synchronously control the power output of thepower converter 134.

FIG. 6 shows an architecture diagram of a power electronic apparatusaccording to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 6, the signaltransceiver unit 10 a and the processors 132 are connected by acommunication bus 101 a. The signal transceiver unit 10 a sends acontrol command to the processors 132 by the communication bus 101 a.According to the received control command, the processors 132 controlsthe corresponding power converter 134 to carry out the conversion ofelectrical energy. The control commands can be a power on/off command, apower output controlling command and so on. In addition, the processors132 can also access state information of the corresponding powerconverters 134 and transmit the state information to the signaltransceiver unit 10 a through the communication bus 101 a. The stateinformation can be the voltage information, the current information orthe power information of the power converters 134. Moreover, the signaltransceiver unit 10 a may directly transmit the identical-period pulsesignal 101 to the serial differential signal transmitters 11, ortransmit the identical-period pulse signal 101 to the serialdifferential signal transmitters 11 through an optical coupler or alevel converting circuit. Herein, it needs to further explain that theserial differential signal transmitter 11 and the serial differentialsignal receiver 12 shown in FIG. 6 is the same to the serialdifferential signal transmitter 11 and the serial differential signalreceiver 12 shown in FIG. 1, respectively.

The power electronic apparatus adopts active detection methods tocomplete the grid islanding detection. The active detection methodsinclude frequency disturbance injection method, phase disturbanceinjection method, and reactive disturbance injection method. When usingany one above-mentioned method to execute the islanding detection forthe parallel power converters 14 shown in FIG. 6, it must strictlycontrol the disturbance signal to be synchronously injected into each ofthe power converters 14. Similarly, the disturbance signal can beinjected by the way of controlling the duty cycle variations of eachperiod of the identical-period pulse signal 101, and can be extractedfrom the identical-period pulse signal 133 by the way of measuring theduty cycles of each period of the identical-period pulse signal 133.Taking the frequency disturbance injection method for instance, theprocessor 132 would receive the synchronous disturbance signal from theprogrammable logic device 131, and inject the frequency disturbancesignal into each of the corresponding power converters 134 coordinately,so as to make the operating frequency of the power converters 134 shiftsynchronously. At the meantime, the processors 132 would simultaneouslydetect the frequency of the output voltage of the power converters 134,and send the frequency of the output voltage back to the signaltransceiver unit 10 a. The received frequency of the output voltage iscompared with the frequency of grid voltage in the transceiver unit 10a. If the frequency of the output voltage is beyond the normal variationrange of the frequency of grid voltage, the power electronic apparatusis determined to be in an island state. Herein, it needs to furtherexplain that the normal variation range means that the frequency of theoutput voltage must be smaller than the rated frequency of the gridvoltage plus 0.5 Hz, or greater than the rated frequency of the gridvoltage minus 0.7 Hz.

Thus, through above descriptions, the synchronization signaltransmitting device, the synchronization signal transmitting method andthe power electronic apparatus of the present invention have beencompletely and clearly introduced. In summary, the present inventionincludes the advantages of:

(1) The synchronization signal transmitting device and the method revealthe important technology features of simplicity in architecture andadjustment of delay time compensation. Moreover, the device and methodalso show the following advantages: transmission and process purely byhardware without participation of software, without occupation tocalculating ability of processors, high time accuracy, and low timedelay (several nanoseconds to dozens of nanoseconds, negligible).

(2) The synchronization signal transmitting device and the powerelectronic apparatus having the synchronization signal transmittingdevice can not only be used for transmitting the identical synchronousclock signal with power frequency, but also the PWM carrier synchronousclock signal with high frequency ranged from several kHz to hundredskHz. Comparing to the conventional signal transmission technology, theirrequirement on Baud Rate is obviously reduced.

(3) Besides, the programmable logic devices can filter out the signalglitch and reconstruct the missing pulse in the identical-period pulsesignal induced by EMI. The synchronization signal can be reliablytransmitted by the synchronization signal transmitting device and thepower electronic apparatus with the device.

(4) Furthermore, in the present invention, the grid island detection tothe power electronic apparatuses can also be carried out by controllingthe duty cycle variations of each period of the transmittedidentical-period pulse signal.

The above description is made on embodiments of the present invention.However, the embodiments are not intended to limit scope of the presentinvention, and all equivalent implementations or alterations within thespirit of the present invention still fall within the scope of thepresent invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A synchronization signal transmitting device,comprising: at least one serial differential signal transmitter, usedfor receiving an identical-period pulse signal, and outputting theidentical-period pulse signal by the form of a differential signal pair;at least one serial differential signal receiver, coupled to the serialdifferential signal transmitter for receiving the differential signalpair, so as to transform the differential signal pair to a single-endedsignal; and at least one controller, coupled to the at least one serialdifferential signal receiver for receiving the single-ended signal,wherein the controller conducts a signal filtering process and/or asignal reconstruction process to the single-ended signal to obtain asynchronization signal; and the controller outputs a control signal tocontrol power output of a next-stage power converter according to theobtained synchronization signal.
 2. The synchronization signaltransmitting device of claim 1, wherein the serial differential signaltransmitter is coupled to a synchronization signal transmitting unit forreceiving the identical-period pulse signal.
 3. The synchronizationsignal transmitting device of claim 2, wherein the synchronizationsignal transmitting unit transmits the identical-period pulse signal tothe at least one serial differential signal transmitter through anoptical coupler or a level converting circuit.
 4. The synchronizationsignal transmitting device of claim 2, wherein the synchronizationsignal transmitting unit is selected from the group consisting of: aprocessor, a programmable logic device (PLD), and a combination of theprocessor and the programmable logic device.
 5. The synchronizationsignal transmitting device of claim 1, wherein the at least one serialdifferential signal transmitter is coupled to the at least one serialdifferential signal receiver via a differential serial bus, and thedifferential serial bus comprising a pair of differential signal wiresand a ground wire.
 6. The synchronization signal transmitting device ofclaim 1, wherein the identical-period pulse signal is a synchronousclock signal with power frequency or a PWM carrier synchronous clocksignal.
 7. The synchronization signal transmitting device of claim 6,wherein the synchronization signal transmitting device comprises twoserial differential signal transmitters for receiving the synchronousclock signal with power frequency and the PWM carrier synchronous clocksignal, respectively.
 8. The synchronization signal transmitting deviceof claim 6, wherein the identical-period pulse signal is used fortransmitting a disturbance signal by controlling the duty cyclevariations of each period of the identical-period pulse signal.
 9. Thesynchronization signal transmitting device of claim 8, wherein thecontroller comprises: a programmable logic device, used for receivingthe single-ended signal, and calculating arrival time interval of a nextpulse of the single-ended signal according to arrival time of the pulsefront edge of current pulse of the single-ended signal as well as thespecific period of the single-ended signal, so as to further obtain thesynchronization signal after the signal filtering process and/or thesignal reconstruction process are executed; and a processor, coupled tothe programmable logic device for receiving the synchronization signal,and outputting the control signal to control the power output of thenext-stage power converter according to the received synchronizationsignal.
 10. The synchronization signal transmitting device of claim 9,wherein the programmable logic device obtains the disturbance signalthrough measuring the duty cycle of each period of the identical-periodpulse signal.
 11. The synchronization signal transmitting device ofclaim 9, wherein the specific period of the single-ended signal is ameasured value obtained from the previous period of the single-endedsignal or a weighted average of the previous few periods of thesingle-ended signal.
 12. The synchronization signal transmitting deviceof claim 1, wherein the serial differential signal receiver transmitsthe single-ended signal to the controller through an optical coupler ora level converting circuit.
 13. A synchronization signal transmittingmethod, comprising steps of: at least one serial differential signaltransmitter receiving an identical-period pulse signal, and outputtingthe identical-period pulse signal by the form of a differential signalpair; at least one serial differential signal receiver receiving thedifferential signal pair, so as to transform the differential signalpair to a single-ended signal; and at least one controller receiving thesingle-ended signal, and the controller conducting a signal filteringprocess and/or a signal reconstruction process to the single-endedsignal for obtaining a synchronization signal, so as to output a controlsignal for controlling the power output of a next-stage power converteraccording to the synchronization signal.
 14. The synchronization signaltransmitting method of claim 13, wherein the identical-period pulsesignal is a synchronous clock signal with power frequency or a PWMcarrier synchronous clock signal.
 15. The synchronization signaltransmitting method of claim 14, two serial differential signaltransmitters receives the synchronous clock signal with power frequencyand the PWM carrier synchronous clock signal, respectively.
 16. Thesynchronization signal transmitting method of claim 13, wherein theidentical-period pulse signal is used for transmitting a disturbancesignal by controlling the duty cycle variations of each period of theidentical-period pulse signal.
 17. The synchronization signaltransmitting method of claim 13, wherein the controller comprises: aprogrammable logic device, used for receiving the single-ended signal,and calculating arrival time interval of a next pulse of thesingle-ended signal according to arrival time of the pulse front edge ofa current pulse of the single-ended signal as well as the specificperiod of the single-ended signal, so as to further obtain thesynchronization signal after the signal filtering process and/or thesignal reconstruction process are executed; and a processor, coupled tothe programmable logic device for receiving the synchronization signal,and outputting the control signal to control the power output of thenext-stage power converter according to the received synchronizationsignal.
 18. The synchronization signal transmitting method of claim 17,wherein the programmable logic device obtains the disturbance signalthrough measuring the duty cycle of each period of the identical-periodpulse signal.
 19. The synchronization signal transmitting method ofclaim 13, wherein the signal-filtering process comprises steps of:calculating arrival time interval of a next pulse of the single-endedsignal according to an arrival time of the pulse front edge of a currentpulse of the single-ended signal as well as a specific period of thesingle-ended signal; determining whether the next pulse of thesingle-ended signal is received before the arrival time interval of thenext pulse; if yes, it is determined that the received pulse of thesingle-ended signal is an interference pulse signal and filtering outthe received pulse.
 20. The synchronization signal transmitting methodof claim 13, wherein the signal reconstruction process comprises stepsof: calculating arrival time interval of a next pulse of thesingle-ended signal according to arrival time of the pulse front edge ofa current pulse of the single-ended signal as well as a specific periodof the single-ended signal; determining whether the next pulse of thesingle-ended signal is received during the arrival time interval of thenext pulse; if no, it is determined that one pulse of the single-endedsignal has been lost and reconstructing the lost pulse of thesingle-ended signal.
 21. The synchronization signal transmitting methodof claim 19 or 20, wherein the specific period of the single-endedsignal is a measured value obtained from the previous one period of thesingle-ended signal or a weighted average of the previous few periods ofthe single-ended signal.
 22. A power electronic apparatus, comprising: asignal transceiver unit, used for outputting an identical-period pulsesignal; at least one serial differential signal transmitter, coupled tothe signal transceiver unit for receiving the identical-period pulsesignal, and outputting the identical-period pulse signal by the form ofa differential signal pair; at least one serial differential signalreceiver, coupled to the serial differential signal transmitter forreceiving the differential signal pair, so as to transform thedifferential signal pair to a single-ended signal; and at least oneconverter module, coupled to the at least one serial differential signalreceiver, and comprising: a controller, coupled to the serialdifferential signal receiver for receiving the single-ended signal; anda power converter, coupled to the controller; wherein the controllerconducts a signal filtering process and/or a signal reconstructionprocess to the received single-ended signal to obtain a synchronizationsignal, and the controller outputs a control signal for controlling thepower output of a next-stage power converter according to thesynchronization signal.
 23. The power electronic apparatus of claim 22,wherein the signal transceiver unit is selected from the groupconsisting of: a processor, a programmable logic device (PLD), andcombination of the processor and the programmable logic device.
 24. Thepower electronic apparatus of claim 22, wherein the controllercomprises: a programmable logic device, used for receiving thesingle-ended signal, and calculating arrival time interval of a nextpulse of the single-ended signal according to arrival time of the pulsefront edge of a current pulse of the single-ended signal as well as thespecific period of the single-ended signal, so as to further obtain thesynchronization signal after the signal filtering process and/or thesignal reconstruction process are executed; and a processor, coupled tothe programmable logic device for receiving the synchronization signal,and outputting the control signal to control the power output of thenext-stage power converter according to the received synchronizationsignal.
 25. The power electronic apparatus of claim 24, wherein thesignal transceiver unit and the processors are connected by acommunication bus for carrying out the data exchange between the signaltransceiver unit and the processors.
 26. The power electronic apparatusof claim 22, wherein signal transceiver unit transmits theidentical-period pulse signal to the at least one serial differentialsignal transmitter through an optical coupler or a level convertingcircuit.
 27. The power electronic apparatus of claim 22, wherein theserial differential signal transmitter is coupled to the serialdifferential signal receiver via a differential serial bus, and thedifferential serial bus comprising a pair of differential signal wiresand a ground wire.
 28. The power electronic apparatus of claim 22,wherein the identical-period pulse signal is a synchronous clock signalwith power frequency or a PWM carrier synchronous clock signal.
 29. Thepower electronic apparatus of claim 22, wherein the power electronicapparatus has two serial differential signal transmitters for receivingthe synchronous clock signal with power frequency and the PWM carriersynchronous clock signal, respectively.
 30. The power electronicapparatus of claim 24, wherein the identical-period pulse signal is usedfor transmitting a disturbance signal by controlling the duty cyclevariations of each period of the identical-period pulse signal.
 31. Thepower electronic apparatus of claim 30, wherein the programmable logicdevice obtains the disturbance signal through measuring the duty cycleof each period of the identical-period pulse signal.
 32. The powerelectronic apparatus device of claim 22, wherein the serial differentialsignal receiver transmits the single-ended signal to the convertermodule through an optical coupler or a level converting circuit.